Battle lines are being drawn in Congress over Donald Trump’s agenda.
The establishment wants to give voters another raw deal.
And Byron Donalds drew a line in the sand in this fight with Mitch McConnell.
Bryon Donalds will not back down from spending cuts
Republicans in Congress are debating what to include in President Donald Trump’s one big, beautiful bill.
Trump wants a budget reconciliation bill that would include tax cuts, funding for border security, and energy policy.
House Republicans passed a budget framework that set the stage for the reconciliation bill.
The sticking point between the House and the Republican establishment in the Senate is on spending cuts.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) gave a verbal promise to find $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
RINOs in the Senate have balked at any serious spending cuts in the reconciliation bill.
Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) predicted that House “budget hawks” would not vote for any bill that did not include at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts during an appearance on Fox Business.
“I got to tell you the truth here,” Donalds said. “If $1.5 trillion is not the cut line coming out of the House, that bill is not going to pass. Because the budget hawks in our conference, people who care about mandatory spending cuts and reforms, have been serious about this consistently for the last couple of months.”
A budget reconciliation bill can pass Congress on a party-line vote and bypass a Democrat filibuster in the Senate.
“We have to cut mandatory spending,” Donalds added. “It is not an option for the future health of the United States. So for the House and for the Senate, let’s be clear right now. If you’re not cutting 1.5 trillion, this budget will not pass out of Congress.”
Waste, fraud, and abuse are under the microscope
Donalds said that targeting waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid would net substantial savings.
“One, Social Security cannot be touched in budget reconciliation. So that’s off the table, can’t go there,” Donalds explained. “There is waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid to the tune of at least $600 billion that can be trimmed out of Medicaid, potentially more if you get creative.”
He added that the $1 trillion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a Green New Deal slush fund, passed under former President Joe Biden was also on the table.
“You have things like the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] tax credits under the Biden administration, those Green New Deal slush fund tax credits, you can cut a lot of stuff out of that,” Donalds stated. “If you cut it all, that’s about $700 billion right there depending on the scoring, how that comes back from CBO [Congressional Budget Office].”
RINOs in the House and Senate are trying to protect the green energy tax credits in the IRA.
“If we’re not cutting spending in a serious way, that reconciliation package will not pass the house,” Donalds added.
A major battle is unfolding between the establishment and conservatives over how much spending to cut.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
